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Monthly Archives: August 2010

How to find an apartment

With a new school year creeping up you may need to find a place to stay. If you’re headed to University or College it may mean moving to another city. If you’re headed into second year you may be done with residence and need a place off campus for late night… study groups. Whatever the case, it’s time to start looking ’cause you only have a little over 3 weeks left.

I’ve started by coming up with a few tips to help, but I’m sure there are more tips out there, so please add your thoughts and ideas in the comments.

Search where you’re going, not where you are

If you’re headed out-of-town, take a look at the full range of cities we have on UsedCanada.com. Heading to Calgary? Then UsedCalgary.com it is. Going to Royal Roads? Then check out UsedVictoria.com.

Don’t forget to look under Roommates

Roommates can become lifelong friends. Take a look at Joey and Chandler. Unlike these two fictitious characters I know there can be horror stories ( the dude with the goldfish crackers ) but with a little investigation, and a few key questions you can weed out the unwanted places and find a nice place close to school and maybe some good study partners too.

So don’t just look under Rentals, add Roommates to your categories to look under.


Advanced Searches

There are two great options in our advanced search that can save you time. The price range, and the Seller’s Location. These will refine your search down to the perfect budget, and the right place near campus

Use of Maps

And if you aren’t sure the neighborhoods or the local slang, click on “View these ads on a map” under My Tools in the right hand sidebar to see how close the listings are to your first class of the day. Click on “Hybrid” to see how many cars are in the front lawn, or other features that may give you insight into the area.


Look at wanted ads

The other part of advanced search is the ability to narrow listings to see only wanted ads. These are people who are asking, begging you to call because they need a roommate or need someone to rent out the granny suite.

If all else fails post a wanted ad about you

By putting a listing up on the site, you can increase your chances by breaking the ice. Give a story, maybe a picture. This isn’t a personal ad, but if you share what you’ll be doing and the kind of person you are, maybe chuck in a joke or two, someone else looking to rent might pause for a second, and chuckle. Which is always a nice start. Here’s an example.

If you have any great questions to ask, potential roommates and landlords, I’d like to hear them. Please post a comment with you’re suggestions.

5 Negotiating Tips for Buyers & Sellers

Written by Andrea Bremner

Everything in life is negotiable. We negotiate all the time, we negotiate bedtimes with our kids, curfews with our parents, what movie to go see with our partner, where to go out that night with our friends… the list goes on and on. The only time we get a little squeamish about negotiation is when it really matters; when it comes to spending our hard-earned money on a product.

When it comes to buying things there is almost always some wiggle. When selling things you could find it hard to stay focused and not take things personally. Here are my tips for making the most of the wiggle room and staying calm, cool and collected.

For buyers

For sellers

1. Be reasonable

Read: no low balls! That guy selling his giant sectional couch in mint condition for $250 won’t be impressed with your offer of $50, oh! and you need delivery too. It is a waste of your time and his so don’t bother.

That being said if someone has way overpriced something; go in with a REASONABLE offer and see what happens….

1. Don’t be emotional

This is a business transaction, nothing more. You are trying to get the best price and buyers are trying to get the best deal. It isn’t personal so don’t take it personally.

Don’t be emotional about your pricing either; if it isn’t at or near fair market value (read: REASONABLE PRICE!) then it won’t sell. Your elbow grease equity will only get you so much in return (if you do a crap job can sometimes devalue what you are selling). And expect no return on your emotional equity, people simply will not overpay for your rusted out ’76 VW Rabbit because it holds so many memories of fun times with your friends and it was your first car and you hate to have to sell it and….

2. Consider that value and worth are different things

If things from somewhere like Ikea are hard to get where you live then the value of that item suddenly becomes much higher than what it is worth. This is especially true in Victoria where things from Ikea on the UsedVictoria.com can sometimes be sold for almost what you would pay for it new. Once the headache (not to mention expense) of taking the ferry over to the mainland and then assembling it yourself is over, you’re left with the realization that paying $100 for a coffee table that’s only worth $50 seems like a pretty good deal.

2. You can’t have your cake and eat it too

If you want something out of your house fast; price it cheap and watch it disappear within a few hours. If you want top dollar, price it reasonably and wait for the right buyer. You can’t have both, top dollar and fast almost never happen.

3. Set a cap for how much you are willing to pay and stick to it

Pretty simple concept; but requires a lot of will power. This will help you sever the emotional attachment (because you have absolutely fallen in LOVE with that blender!) so you don’t overpay and bust your budget.

3. Consider the lowest possible price you will accept before getting into the negotiating process

Just like a buyer deciding the highest they will go; this serves to make the process easier, less stressful and much more clear-cut.

4. Be prepared to walk away

If a seller sees you are emotionally attached you have lost all bargaining power; at that point forget negotiating and just pay full fare and stop wasting everyone’s time. If you’re prepared to walk away from the deal at any time you are on good ground. A Realtor friend once told me he sees the deal of the century once a week. If the deal falls apart there will be another tomorrow…

4. Be patient

When negotiating the person with the most time and the most patience typically gets the best end of the deal. If you try to rush through negotiations you will make mistakes and bad decisions. Plus taking your time may make the buyer improve their offer and close the deal to avoid you receiving a better deal in the meantime.

5. Ask for what you want

What is the worst that can happen? They say no? (see tip #4) this even works in retail stores… want 10% off? ask for it. BUT… as in all the above tips BE REASONABLE!! you are not going to get the season’s latest bag that just came in stock at 90% off.

5. Shut up and listen

The best negotiators do a lot of listening. A good ratio is 030/70, talk 30% of the time and listen 70%. Ask open-ended questions and let the buyer tell you everything you need to know about how to go about negotiating with them. If you hear lots of keywords like “LOVE” and “HAVE TO HAVE IT!” you will be laughing all the way to the bank.

creative commons image courtesy of Steve & Jemma Copley

3 Tips for Commercial Sellers: Put The Product First

Many people use our sites for business. Call them Weekend-trepreneurs or Mom-trepreneurs or just full-time Entrepreneurs. If you consider yourself one, then this post is just for you.


Creative Commons Image courtesy of Fabio Bruna

Here are 3 tips you can use to make your listings better:

It’s about the Product

When starting a business, it’s easy to get caught up in making sure that people know about who you are. Any communication you send out has a logo to make your brand known. And if you’re placing an item, it’s easy to start talking about you first.

Don’t.

Yes, it’s important for you to place you information in the listing. But put the product information first. Afterall, it’s what people are looking for. Here’s our suggestion on how to order your description.

Photos of The Product

This falls in-line with “It’s all about the product”. You may want to place logo’s as your photo. We recommend you stick to the product. If you want to place your logo in the photo you can do that by editing the image.

Again, as someone who is looking to buy a new bike, or a new laptop: images of your logo will not help me to come to a buying decision.

One Listing for all items

Let’s say, hypothetically you have 25 “things”, let’s call them widgets. They are the same brand, and product, but some are white and some are yellow. Your first instinct is to put each item up. But does Future Shop or Microsoft say how many units of each they have or do they just say, we have them?

Think about your listing the same way. One listing for 1 or 100 widgets. In the description you can put in buying words like “limited quantity” or “don’t miss.” Once you sell all your stock, take down the listing.

Use one – or use all of these suggestions. Let us know if you have any successes or other tips.

Happy Civic Holiday!

Congratulations Canada! It’s your day off (hopefully). What your employer may or may not know is that today is not technically a Statutory Holiday, but rather is a Civic Holiday. While a bill has been put forth to the House of Commons to create a Statutory Holiday on August 2nd, it has yet to be passed. This means that your employer has every right to ask you to work. Don’t worry, we won’t tell.

- UsedEverywhere.com Team

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